In live web meetings, media, such as audio and video content, is typically streamed to a client device and presented to a web meeting participant. In streaming live web meetings, the media stream is typically delivered one-way, from a server location to each web meeting participant. Some web meeting solutions, such as Adobe® Connect, have implemented tools for web meeting participants to interact with each other and/or the presenter, typically through chat software or implementing voice over IP (VoIP) technologies. Web meeting solutions can even record live web meetings, so that participants can review the recording at a later time.
While a live web meeting is being streamed, participants may want to take notes using information gleaned from the meeting and to reference at a later time. While most participants will take notes using a pen and paper, some web meeting solutions have gone so far as to provide rudimentary note-taking tools (i.e., text editors). Notes taken using these note-taking tools result in a flat text document, functionally not very different than a piece of paper having notes hand-written thereon. When participants reference the notes that were taken during the live web meeting, there is a significant disconnect between each note and the context in which the note was taken. For example, if the presenter speaks a powerful phrase during the live web meeting and a particular word stands out to a participant, thereby prompting the participant to jot down the word in a note, the participant could completely forget why that note was taken when referencing the note a day, a week, or even months after the live presentation. Provided that the live meeting was recorded, the participant could playback a recording of the live meeting with hopes of providing some context to the note. Searching the recording, however, can be tedious and time-consuming.
Web meeting solutions may offer note-taking tools that provide participants with the ability to record notes taken during a live web meeting. In this regard, participants can retrieve notes that were taken during a recorded web meeting and later review these notes upon playback of the recording. For instance, if a participant created notes at minutes 5, 10, and 15 of a 20-minute presentation, the participant can playback a recording of the presentation and also review the notes that were recorded at minutes 5, 10, and 15 (i.e., showing up during playback of the recording). Similarly, presenters or administrators can employ such tools to prepare notes for display during a live web meeting or during playback of a web meeting recording. For instance, if the presenter or web meeting administrator wanted particular notes to appear to participants during relevant portions of a presentation, the notes would also need to be submitted at the time of recording to associate the note with the relevant playback portion of the recording.
Limiting notes to a particular recording, however, can be undesirably restrictive. For instance, if a presenter or web meeting administrator recorded a set of notes for a particular web meeting, and then wanted to import/export some or all of the same set of notes to another web meeting, current implementations restricting the association notes to a particular recording could pose a significant problem.